Nexus of Lazarus
by DJatomica69
Summary: Basically a novelization of the intro to ME2, done for an assignment back in grade 12. Rating is for violence.


**(A/N): Congrats on clicking on this story, whether it be on accident or on purpose! Welcome to my little novelization of the intro to Mass Effect 2. To get the basic stuff out of the way, I obviously do NOT own Mass Effect. I'm not the most creative of people, but even I think I could've came up with a better ending to ME3 (or I'd like to think so anyway). This little story is the result of my grade 12 English class, where we were assigned to write a short story. Like I said, I am not the most creative of people, so I simply asked to novelize an existing work, which my teacher let me do. If you're interested, I got the best mark in the class for this, so hooray for Mass Effect! To be fair, half the class was failing, so it's not THAT good, but I did get just shy of %100! Anyway, on with the show!**

Space seemed to distort around a center point, followed by a ship that seemed to appear from nothing. It was a white vessel with four large engines stemming out from its sides. On either side of the main hull, the designation "NORMADY" could be found, along with "SR-1" in smaller characters on the first pair of engines.

Inside the command deck of the ship, a flurry of activity could be seen. Many people were monitoring the condition of the ship on various holographic consoles. At the helm, a pilot could be seen wearing the standard issue Alliance uniform, complete with a cap. His name tag read "Joker". "Disengaging FTL drives." Joker commented out loud while typing at his terminal. "Heat sinks active. Board is green, we are running silent." A man on the far side of middle age with what little hair he had being grey handed a data pad to a fellow crewman before approaching Joker. "We're wasting our time." He said. "Four days up and down this sector and we haven't found any sign of Geth activity." The pilot responded, "Three ships have gone missing here in the past month Presley, something happened to them." Presley grunted out in reply, "My money's on slavers, the Terminus system's crawling with them."

Joker opened his moth to argue back, but was interrupted a female ensign stationed at the console behind them. "I'm picking up something on the long range scanner. Unidentified vessel, looks like a cruiser." As a quite alarm started coming from his console, Joker added, "Doesn't match any known signatures."After a few moments, another alarm started blaring, this time from the ensign's console. She exclaimed in a confused and slightly panicked voice, "Cruiser is changing course, now on intercept trajectory." Presley's eyes widened as he walked over to look at her console. "Can't be, stealth systems are engaged, there's no way a Geth ship could-" Joker cut him off, "It's not the Geth, brace for evasive manoeuvres!" The Normandy started vibrating as the core went into overdrive, producing a humming sound that could be heard throughout the ship even over the alarms, which were increasing in intensity.

Barley visible in the darkness of space, the cylindrical shaped cruiser tracked the Normandy, following it from afar. A dull yellow glow began to emit from the large circular opening at the front of the ship, which grew in intensity until an amber beam shot forth towards the Normandy. The quick reaction time of Joker spared the ship a direct hit, but the beam still glanced off of one of the second pair of engines.

Even though the Normandy was just skimmed, the attack could be felt throughout the ship. Various consoles and equipment were destroyed as many of the Normandy's systems were damaged. Presley started to read the damage report, only to have a nearby console blow up in his face, killing him. "Presley!" shouted the ensign, getting up to help him, only to meet the same fate when her terminal overloaded. A few feet in front of them, Joker was frantically typing at the various displays in front of him, shouting out stats and commands. "Kinetic barriers down! Multiple hull breaches! Weapons offline! Somebody get that fire out!" The Normandy lurched as a second attack tore into the main hull. The golden beam of light ripped through the side of the ship, opening a hole into the vacuum of space. All of the air rushed out of the hole, extinguishing all the fires, but also the lives of everyone on that deck.

On the deck below, a woman in white armour ran through the halls, passing inured crewmen heading to the escape pods. As Ashley Williams tore her way through the wires and debris, she spotted a man donning N7 armouring putting his helmet on. "Shepard!" She called out. He turned, his visor tinted black to prevent damage from the blinding lights of the fires and explosions. "Distress beacon is ready for launch." He told her as she secured her own helmet. "Will the Alliance get here in time?" She asked. Another violent blast rocked the ship. Ashley almost tumbled, grabbing the wall for support, while Shepard managed to keep his balance. He ran over to a hatch on the wall and retrieved two fire extinguishers, tossing one to Ashley while starting getting to work with one himself. "I'm not doing this just so they can find our frozen corpses." He told her. "Get everyone on the escape shuttles." She argued, "Joker is still in the cockpit, he won't abandon ship. I'm not leaving either." Shepard's extinguisher ran out, causing him to throw it to the side. He grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her in the direction of the shuttle bay. "Get the damn shuttles! I'll haul Joker's crippled ass out of here." With that, he started walking towards the upper deck, grabbing the walls for support as the ship shook. Ashley started towards the shuttle bay, but gave a last look back. "Commander..." She started. Shepard released the wires he was holding to turn and point at her. "Get the hell out of here!" He yelled, so she turned and ran.

She made it down the hall and turned the corner to see the last escape pod. She stopped outside the entrance, waving in other panicking crewmen. "Everybody in, go, go, go!" The crewmen shuffled inside. When the last crewman turned to corner there was a blast from the wall beside her, ending her life. Ashley hesitated for a moment, before getting in the pod herself, the blast doors shutting behind her.

The Normandy, what was left of it, drifted trough space, smoke and debris trailing behind it. The right side of the main hull opened, revealing numerous egg shaped pods that ejected and flew out into space.

After checking a console to make sure the pods ejected successfully, Shepard turned and started towards the upper deck. Moving through the Normandy as she was falling apart around him, he could hear Joker broadcasting a distress signal over his radio. "Mayday, mayday, this is SSV Normandy! We've suffered heavy damage from an unknown enemy!" An explosion rocked the ship, almost tearing Shepard off his feet. As he moved up the stairs, his radio flickered to life again. "Come on baby, hold together. Hold together..." Shepard reached the door to the command deck, which opened automatically when he walked up to it. As soon as it did, all the air behind him rushed to his front and out into the vacuum that used to be the CIC. Various chairs and pieces of equipment were floating around without the artificial gravity to keep them down. The only thing keeping him on the ground being his mass effect boots, Shepard trekked toward the cockpit which was shielded off from the harsh vacuum by only a kinetic barrier.

As he passed through it, he could see Joker frantically manipulating the various holographic displays before him. Shepard ran up to him as soon as he felt the pull of artificial gravity once more, saying "Come on Joker, we've got to get out of here." Joker didn't seem to physically respond, continuing what he was doing, but he took the time to make a rushed response. "No, I won't abandon the Normandy, I can still save her!" With a look at the displays Joker was watching, Shepard could tell that that statement was far from the truth. "The Normandy's dead, just like us if we don't get the hell out of here!" Shepard angrily exclaimed. "No, we just have to- Oh no..." Joker cut himself off as he noticed something on the screen. "They're coming around for another attack!" Shepard turned to see the golden beam rip through what was left of the combat deck, nearly separating it from the cockpit. He sprinted over to the pilot's seat, ripping Joker out of it by his elbow, getting a cry of paint in return. "Watch the arm!" Slinging said arm over his shoulder, Shepard dragged him over to the helm escape pod and deposited Joker inside it. Just as he was about to get in himself, another blast hit the ship, overloading the panel beside him and causing it explode. The element zero core of his suit being unable to keep up with the force of the blast, his boots separated from the ground and he was sent flying back. As he grabbed onto the wall and prepared to pull himself back, the cruiser again fired its weapon, putting the ivory beam between him and the entrance to the escape pod. As the kinetic barrier broke and the air started rushing out, he could hear joker shouting over his radio. "Commander!" Doing the only thing he could, he pressed down on the button in front of him, shutting the shuttle door and beginning the ejection sequence. "Shepard!" he heard before his radio was cut off as the Normandy blew apart, sending him into space.

As he flew, he could see white air in front of his face. While wondering where it was coming from, he felt a cold chill go down his spine, signalling a suit breach. He started to struggle, feeling the air slip through his fingers. As his vision started to blacken, the last thing he witnessed was the blue light from Joker's escape pod as his lifeless body started to fall towards the planet.

**(A/N): Well, thank you for reading my little bout of laziness! For the record, I know I didn't really divulge too much into the character's emotions, but that was intended. Keep in mind, I had to cram this all onto 2 pages. Also, my teacher wasn't familiar with the source material, and I thought that having Ashley (for example) seem attached to Sheppard in an emotional way would warrant an explanation, which frankly I was too lazy to do for my teacher. I got a good mark anyway, so I'm happy with that. Long live the Mass Effect universe! I've been hearing rumors about a 4th game, so I hope they don't screw that up.**


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